There are some new privacy settings in Safari 6 that potentially prevent a couple of security issues from plaguing you as you roam about the internet.

Some websites may track your browsing activity when they send you web pages to view, which allows those sites to tailor what is presented to you on a specific web page. In addition, when you type search words into the new integrated search bar in Safari 6, Safari will send those words to the search engine itself so that it can send you a list of common searches that are similar to yours. Both of these issues are potential privacy issues, and here’s how you can disable both of them.

Launch Safari, and then open up the Preferences window. You can do this with a click on the Safari menu, choosing Preferences…, or you can hit Command-Comma on your keyboard. Either way, once the preferences window opens, click on the Privacy tab at the top. At the bottom of the Privacy preferences window, you’ll see two unchecked boxes, one next to “Website tracking,” and the other next to Web search.” Click these to disable the two Safari features.

Asking websites not to track you assumes, of course, that websites will honor your request. This is not 100% privacy, but just another precaution to take. The search engine option will, in theory, keep Safari from sending your search terms along to your search engine of choice.

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